Nice footage Rip! I heard about the buggy/unstable servers and stuff. I expected as much to be honest. I'm just really praying those network improvements really work, because otherwise the scope of the game is just unfeasible.

Still, I believe if anybody can do it, CIG can. I just hope they find a solution that's efficient AND secure, which can be really tricky.

Already ordered all the parts shown on the pcpartpicker link. Got some decent discounts on the processor and mobo (went with a used but "like new" mobo for like $50 off). Also gonna grab that $15 rebate on the cooler.

I should add that Asus updates their driver page maybe twice ever per board, which means any custom implementation of components may end up using the component manufacturer drivers as opposed to the Asus custom ones (ex. Sound device implementation).

I'd imagine the component manufacturer drivers would be better, since they're made for the actual component? Or am I wrong in assuming that, my mind is spinning with all the information and reviews I've read lol.

Yeah, I'm leaning towards the Crosshair 6 Hero now, mostly because I've had a good experience with Asus in the past (I have Asus right now, and it ran me a solid 5 years), and also they have pretty good overclocking utilities. I'm just hoping I can use (at least) the 3200 MHz on my RAM, but I'd imagine that Asus would try and keep their top-of-the-line motherboard updated and in-check to run properly.

I've decided that I don't want a "first-wave" Ryzen mobo, just risky with reliability. I'd prefer to get a newer one where the mobo guys have had their hands on Ryzen for a while and worked out the kinks. I would get the Asus ROG Strix X370-F, but it only comes with one M.2 slot, and that's the only thing keeping me from deciding on it.

I had a friend who works in a computer repair shop fervently tell me AGAINST getting an Asrock mobo due to reliability issues. As for the extra features, 8 SATA slots are enough, I guess an extra M2 slot can help down the road. I have no practical use for Wifi.

I don't know, it's possible his experience(s) with Asrock hardware could be a small/bad sample, but I don't necessarily doubt him either.

You do make a good point, especially with overclocking and getting an "X variant". I am very much on the fence about this. I'm just concerned about getting less performance, especially in gaming, with the 1700.

As far as I can tell, OCing the 1700 brings it up to par with the 1600X on video games. Games are going to be my primary load, and I only work on fairly small projects on VS, so it's not too important. I'm still leaning towards the 1600X.

I was kind of shying away from the 1700 because I have no idea how well it overclocks, and relying on overclocking for performance is always a gamble. Do you have any links that show OCed 1700 performance stats? Especially in comparison to the 1600x, which I was thinking about OCing anyway, and it comes out-of-the-box with better (reported) gaming performance, at a lower price.

Thanks for the tip on mobos, I haven't been paying a whole lot of attention to the parts market (other than CPU/GPU), so I had no idea what the market was like.